European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation

EGLSF LOGO

The European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) is a sporting body for homosexuals in Europe. It was founded by West German and Dutch LGBT sport clubs in 1989 after being inspired by the first Gay Games in San Francisco, United States. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Today, EGLSF has more than a hundred LGBT sport clubs from all over Europe as members, representing more than 20.000 European athletes.

Since 1992, the EGLSF celebrates a large European multi sport event nearly year: the EuroGames, the European Gay & Lesbian Championships. There are two levels of EuroGames: large-scale EuroGames and small-scale EuroGames.

For the large scale EuroGames no limitations apply. Small-scale EuroGames are limited to a maximum of 3,000 participants in order to enable small clubs to bid for, and host, the EuroGames.

Besides offering a high-quality sport event to the gay and lesbian sports community, the EGLSF wishes to promote the following goals:

fight against discrimination in sport on grounds of gender identity & sexual orientation
stimulate integration in sport and emancipation of athletes regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation
enable and support the coming out of sports men and women
support the founding of new gay / lesbian / bisexual / straight / transgendered / queer and mixed sport groups

Activities European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) carries out several activities; generally (but not limited) in the fields of:

organising sports events – EuroGames; hosting and participating in human rights conferences; managing information resource websites and social media; carrying out special (EU) projects, focusing on human rights in and through sport; pursuing advocacy and activism work; supporting our member organisations throughout Europe; cooperating with partner organisations, institutions and other stakeholders.

EUROGAMES

EuroGamesThe idea of organizing EuroGames was born after the second Gay Games in San Francisco 1986. The first EuroGames took place in The Hague in 1992, and the last EuroGames were held in 2012 in Budapest, Hungary as the 14th edition. The annual general assembly of the EGLSF decides which bidding club or city is going to organize the EuroGames, and in order to make it possible for smaller cities to arrange such games, EuroGames are organised as either “big” or “small”, i.e. the number of sports offered is limited (usually alternates). Visit the EuroGames website for more history and information. www.eurogames.info

HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCES

Bringing together experts from different fields, educating and raising awareness, sharing best practices, enabling networking and advocating human rights is also one of the activities of EGLSF, and this is often done by organising or participating in various human rights conferences, workshops, trainings, study sessions and other educational events. Past conferences

INFORMATION WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

As a network of sports groups, we focus on their needs, and also offer services to individual athletes in Europe.

Sports News, Events & Links We publish current news plus a calendar of all scheduled events in Europe. If you check out the online version, you will also find events outside Europe. Links & Address Directory You can find links to sports groups in your area or add your new website to this fine collection of links to LGBT sports groups. Visit our online Links & Address Directory. EGLSF is also present on Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube.

EGLSF ADVOCACY WORK AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

In order to abolish discrimination against LGBT people in sports EGLSF is doing lobby work within the Council of Europe. As an official NGO we enjoy participatory status with the CoE. Other examples of advocay work:

Football Against Racism in Europe Homophobia in football UEFA Conference Football is everything Fair Play, Tolerance & Safety in Sports for Everyone EGLSF Exhibition ‘Against the Rules’

OUR HISTORY OF ADVOCACY WORK

Discrimination is regrettably still a common problem within the gay and lesbian sport community. In October 1994 the EGLSF published: “A Documentation on the Discrimination of Gays and Lesbians in Sports”. In this report a total of 25 examples of discrimination were outlined. The range of discrimination varies from excluding gay and lesbian athletes from participating in sports events to open, or hidden violence, mobbing and psychological pressure.

Since then many additional cases have been reported. These cases were published in an update of the document called ““Off Side”” in 1999. It was presented at the Building Bridges conference in The Hague.

“Offside” was distributed to all sport federations, the European Committee, the European Parliament, the European Council in Strasbourg and the organisers of the European Conference on Sport and Tolerance. One of the EGLSF’s main tasks is to put its finger on those cases of discrimination and homophobia and to raise awareness on this important issue in the world of sports.

The EGLSF lobbies for setting and acknowledging the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender in sports and therefore strives to be involved in all international declarations or agreements to fight discrimination of all sorts and against anyone, no matter whether he or she is gay, bi- or heterosexual.

AGAINST THE RULES – LESBIANS AND GAYS IN SPORT

The issue of gay and lesbian participation in sport is still a taboo subject that is usually only talked about behind closed doors, but rarely discussed in the open. There is hardly a single area of society in which the participation of homosexuals seems as abnormal as in sport.

Even though society’s attitudes to sexuality have changed, the assumption still remains that sport and homosexuality do not mix; lesbians and gay men are still largely ignored or openly rejected in sport.

However, the situation is slowly changing. Various social developments like the fact that sport is becoming a leisure activity rather than a form of physical training, the emancipation of women, the emergence of a gay and lesbian movement are starting to have an impact on sport, with the result that, even here, homosexuality can no longer be swept completely under the carpet.

Against the Rules – Lesbians and Gays in Sport, an exhibition presented by the acceptance campaign office of the ministry for youth, family and health of the North Rhine-Westphalia regional government and organised jointly by SC Janus, Cologne’s Centrum Schwule Geschichte (Gay History Centre) and others, represented an initial appraisal of the subject. It was updated by the European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) in 2010 and translated into English. The exhibition, opened on May 4, 2010 in Berlin, does not claim to be exhaustive, but aims to help remove the taboos from the subject of homosexuality and sport, and draw attention to the various forms of discrimination against sexual minorities in sport.

In 2012, within the programme Football for Equality, the exhibition was updated again and translated in several European languages (currently available in English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Slovenian, Slovak, Spanish).

The exhibition consists of 37 banners in total, giving introduction and information on elite athletes, discrimination, lesbian & gay clubs & federations, Gay Games, OutGames, EuroGames and portraying LGBT athletes Amelie Mauresmo, Babe Didrickson, Billie Jean King, Bob Paris, David Kopay, Gottfried von Cramm, Greg Louganis, Heinz Bonn, Ian Roberts, Imke Duplitzer, John Blankenstein, Judith Arndt, Justin Fashanu, Marcus Urban, Marie Carsten, Mark Tewksbury, Martina Navratilova, Otto Peltzer, Parinya Kiatbusaba, and Tom Waddell.

The exhibition Against the Rules – Lesbians and Gays in Sport is a travelling exhibition by EGLSF. You can also rent the exhibition in several languages free of charge and show the exhibition yourself. You only have to pay for transportation costs.

Board Members

Board Position	Name	Nationality	Member Club	Languages	Period
Co-President	Annette Wachter	German	S.C. Janus, Cologne, Germany	German, English	2013-2017
Co-President	Klaus Heusslein	German	ICONS Italia, Milan, Italy	German, Italian, English	2013-2017
Treasurer	Edwin Westenberg	Dutch	GS Ketelbinkie, Rotterdam, The Netherlands	Dutch, English	2015-2017
General Secretary	Tamara Tien	Dutch	Panteres Grogues, Barcelona, Spain	Dutch, English	2013-2017
Board Member	Jon Landa	Spanish	Samarucs, Valencia, Spain	Catalan, Spanish, Italian, English	2011-2016
Board Member	John Ryan	Irish	Nat Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands	English	2015-2017
Board Member	Christiana Daneva	Bulgarian	Bilitis Resource Center Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria	English, Bulgarian	2014-2016